Edward Garnier, MP for Harborough, Oadby & Wigston, spent time at South Wigston High School on Friday, 27 April with the Head Teacher, Gary Toward, to discuss the school’s future as an Academy and the Governors’ and school’s aspirations to change from a 10 to 14 age group school to one that teaches pupils up to 16 years old.
“This is a good school and it provides excellent education for its pupils but we face a problem of it having to cater for huge numbers of out of area children who come across the Borough boundary from Leicester into the County where the central funding is far lower than that available to the City and, to some extent, the children are less able to cope with the high standards required of them by the school. The school needs its intake to have the requisite standards of reading and arithmetic as they leave primary school.
“That said, Mr Toward and his staff are working very hard to help all their pupils from the most able to the least advanced, as well as ensuring that the school as a whole goes from strength to strength. Now see that it has academy status I predict nothing but continuing excellence in this good local school.”